SQÜRL is: Carter Logan and Jim Jarmusch.
An enthusiastically marginal rock band from New York City who like big drums & distorted guitars, cassette recorders, loops, feedback, sad country songs, molten stoner core, chopped & screwed hip-hop, and imaginary movie scores.
SQÜRL began in 2009 when Jim and Carter teamed with producer/engineer Shane Stoneback to record some original music for the film THE LIMITS OF CONTROL. Echoing the varied Spanish landscapes captured in the film, the three emerged with a set of slow-motion psychedelic rock instrumentals (releasing them originally as Bad Rabbit). As the artists settled into their new moniker SQÜRL, the group released a series of 3 EPs, recorded over a 3 year period by Shane at Treefort Recording in Brooklyn, NY.
In 2013, SQÜRL collaborated with Dutch lutenist Jozef Van Wissem to compose and perform the score for the film ONLY LOVERS LEFT ALIVE. Bridging ancient and modern sounds, the score serves as a reflection of the distinct textures of Detroit and Tangier. The film and soundtrack album were released worldwide in 2014, and earned the group the Cannes Soundtrack Award from a consortium of film and music critics. Earlier in 2017 SQÜRL released EP #260, a heavier instrumental suite, with innovated b-side remixes by Anton Newcombe and Föllakzoid. With their most recent project, the score for PATERSON, SQÜRL have taken inspiration from their performances live-scoring Man Ray's surrealist silent films and made a dive into the ocean of ambient electronic music.
This time, the poetry of the film requested a slightly different approach in texture, timbre and tone, and led the band to use primarily analog synthesizers. Drums and guitars have been temporarily left behind -- feedback gives way to glass harmonica drones, kick drums to sub-bass punctuation marks. While a brighter counterpoint to some of SQÜRL's previous work, using some new tools, the band's purpose has remained to create their own variation on ecstatic music.
